Vela Creations is an in-depth resource for off grid living. The site documents our research and experiences, hoping that they might help others interested in pursuing this lifestyle. This blog is designed to document our day to day experiences as we build our new, sustainable homestead.
If you are interested in seeing more photos and videos, we have a flickr account at the following url:
http://flickr.com/photos/35090117@N05/collections/

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Monday, February 24, 2014

Of all the things we have tried on our homestead, bees has been the most disappointing and upsetting. We have had several hives here, some bought from a bee-keeper in the city and others harvested from local swarms. All of them have eventually absconded (left), despite seeming to be healthy and growing hives.

[flickr set=72157641262750643 photo=6]

Another local bee-keeper has had a similar problem, losing 19 of his 21 hives. And even some of the wild hives that we watch have disappeared.

On Tuesday, while hanging out inside keeping the lard stirred, we heard a loud hum, right outside the window. There was an enormous cloud of bees around the tree directly in front of the living room window. They then settled into a pretty big ball from one of the higher limbs.

Abe quickly made a catching contraption. He cut the bottom off an old 5 gallon bottle and tied the neck of said bottle to a long stick. He then laid a white sheet on the floor (which makes the entrance of the box show up a little more), and put a bait hive already scented with lemon grass and bee's wax onto the sheet. He then placed the bottle carefully up and around the hive and hit the branch with it. The swarm fell into the bottle and he dumped them into the box. Once they had all gone up into the box for the night, he moved it down near our pond.

So far, they are still there. We don't want to get our hopes up too much, but it's hard not to as it is so exciting knowing that we have a new bee hive on the property.

One great thing as regards our future with bees is that we are getting our forest garden going. Although it won't be in full swing for a while yet, we do hope to one day have all the flowers we need to keep bees right here on our property. We know that we use absolutely no chemicals whatsoever on our place, so if the bees don't need to go anywhere else, we can keep them safer. Our water situation has also improved a bunch, so we could even start growing plants just for the bees.

We'd been meaning to butcher her a little sooner, but we were waiting for a cold front to move in. It never did. It has been in the 70s or low 80s for pretty much the whole of February, which is unusual, as we usually get at least a light freeze or two.

[flickr set=72157626288045233 photo=6 shift=16]

And then, instead of it being cold, we all got colds. So we had to wait for that to pass and for us to get our energy back.

The fact that it's currently getting hot during the day meant that we had to get up at 6 to start the ball rolling. Everything went smoothly, and we got the meat cut up and into cold water or the freezer before it ever got warm outside. The new skinning method we've been using (in the video below) is definitely one thing that helped it all go faster.

On Tuesday we made the sausage and rendered the lard (a little more this time - 3.5 liters as opposed to 1.5).

For more details on how we weigh the pig, what we feed, and other details, refer back to the Pork Resupply blog. Or read about the Food Web philosophy for an holistic explanation of our food production.

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So, to sum up. Apples the pig weighed about 250 lbs. The total weight of the meat was 148 lbs, plus the lard. This is how we cut it all up:

Ham: 47 lbs

Bacon: 18 lbs

Steaks: 25 lbs

Roasts: 15 lbs

Ribs: 16 lbs

Pulp (diced pork): 4 lbs

Sausage: 23 lbs

The cost to raise both pigs, including purchase price, was $260. The total meat from both was 275 lbs (and that doesn't include lard, organs, tamales from the head, or posole from the feet). So each pound of meat, even the 82 lbs of delicious smoked ham, cost us $ 0.95/lb The first pig turned out to be cheaper, as the efficiency rate starts to go down after the pig weighs about 220 lbs. But still, not a bad outcome.

We are now pigless, and will probably remain so for a few months. However, this does cause a hole in our Food Web, as we are now starting to produce more rabbit viscera than before, and the poultry on their own can't quite keep up with it. Of course, the dogs are happy to step up their efforts, so it doesn't go to waste. We hope to get some Muscovy Ducks soon, which will certainly help bridge the gap. But if that isn't enough, we may need to get some more pigs sooner.

I made myself a little present this weekend, and it turned out absolutely beautiful.

I have never been much of a handbag person. However, life as a mother has changed certain aspects of my life. I no longer like to leave the house without a few things I might need. Money and phone are no-brainers, in case something happens to the truck. I need keys to open the gate to a property I drive through to get to the village. A camera is often on the list. The Nexus 7 is a useful addition, in case I need to keep Nicky entertained while I talk to someone, or in case someone asks about something we do (I keep all our how-tos and photos on the tablet, as people often approach me for information and it helps to have it handy). Plus there's the essential diaper wipes and a change of clothes for Nicky. Although he's been out of diapers for a long time now, he still has the tendency to do things like roll around in a muddy puddle or play in the water fountain at Leo's Kindergarten, so it pays to be prepared.

[flickr set=72157641262580153 photo=6]

Anyway, I decided it was time to make myself a custom bag. It has padded pockets for the more fragile items (tablet, phone and camera), a built-in wallet (with notes, coins and card compartments), elastic to hold things like a pen and limp balm, a hemp key chain I made a while back. And the most important thing - the exterior consists of our own tanned rabbit furs, while the strap and base are made out of a leather a local cowman makes. It is exquisite. I find myself spending more time than I should petting my bag!

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It could probably have been a little bigger. When I was figuring out all the sizes, I forgot to take into account the space that would be lost through the padding of the pocket in the center and on one side. It seems like I learn something new on every thing I do. But still, it works great as is and I'm very happy with it.

We had planned to plant about fifty trees this Spring, seeing as we now have the water for them. However, that turned out to be a little ambitious, just because of the work involved in setting up the system we want. So, for right now we have settled for one row of the forest garden.

[flickr set=72157640991263495 photo=6]

We used the pigs to cut a terrace into the hill. We have then built up the rock retaining wall on the south side and added a bunch of tree branches and manure to build up the organic material. Besides increasing fertility of the soil, this also acts as a huge water battery. The organic content stores water really well and will keep the area moist long after it has been watered.

We then made a wide swale on the north (uphill) side of the terrace. This will help water filter into the soil of the terrace in heavy rains. It also serves as a pathway for us. We'll be installing a deep water irrigation system to get the trees started.

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The big tree holes (nine of them) are on the edge of the swale. Around each tree spot, we will also be planting bushes and vines and other perennials. It'll take a couple of years to really get going, but we'll expand on the area each year, making terraces down the hill. The idea of having a large scale forest garden is super exciting.

Our growing rabbits needed more space, so we made an outdoor rabbit run.

These new rabbits we have are awesome. They produce large litters and those litters reach butcher weight much sooner than rabbits we've had in the past. Plus we have them in the cage and burrow setup as opposed to a colony, so we haven't been losing any to trampling, heat, snakes, and the like. Our production rates have gone up considerably, and our mortality rate has gone down. Great!

[flickr set=72157640994885974 photo=6 shift=3]

There is, however, a downside: the cages we had for the weaned rabbits are insufficient. They were fine while a doe here or there would miss a breeding, but that doesn't seem to be happening much now. We are now in full production, and we've run out of space for the growing rabbits, of which we have 60 at any given time.

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So we've added a colony type area to the setup. There is a triangular space from the northwest corner of the water tank and the northwest corner of the barn that wasn't spoken for. It is now fenced off, with a feeder, a water nipple, and a little shelter. There's a concrete area that runs along the north of the barn wall, so it will always be cool and shaded for the hotter parts of the year (which seem to be starting already). We'll probably plant a tree or two in the future, but for now, this area is a perfect spot for the older growers.

There are now two single cages for 4-6 week old babies, as they get gradually weaned (not the whole litter at once). Then there's two double cages for 6-8 week olds. At 8 weeks they go to the outside pen.

We put 20 in there yesterday and they seem to be loving it. Plus Leo and Nicky have found their new favorite place to be. The rabbits are so tame, and the boys love to sit in there petting anyone who hops along.

We have a couple of guys from the village that come and help us with various projects around the place. Between the two of them, they have participated in almost every major project since the first little room we built. They have been invaluable.

A few days ago, they brought us a rooster from the village.

[flickr set=72157621923274024 photo=6 shift=26]

We have beautiful hens. They're extremely tame, fat and each lays almost every day (even during winter). They spend their time wandering around the place, scratching through dirt, eating bugs, tilling the garden, etc.

When the new rooster arrived, he figured he'd landed in heaven. He immediately started to jump every hen in sight. No singing, dancing, getting to know one another, nothing. Naturally, our girls beat him up pretty bad.

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Then, the guineas heard the commotion. They immediately identified him as an intruder, circled him, and proceeded to attack. That poor rooster barely escaped and spent the first couple of days hiding and skulking around in the trees beyond the barnyard.

It's now been the better part of a week and he has been accepted. He hangs out with the chickens, sleeps on their roost, can service them whenever he wants, and so on. He seems at ease, though he still watches those guineas with extreme caution.

We made this RMH in the fall of 2012, so we've now had two winters with it and we wanted to share our impressions.

[flickr set=72157632015790209 photo=6]

To sum up, it has worked fantastically and we love it. We can light a fire on a chilly evening for a couple of hours, and the thermal mass is still hot in the morning. What's more, the stove pipe goes from the living room, up into the boys' room through a heat exchanger that we made a while back. So for the whole night, without having anyone feeding a fire, the boys' room is gently heated and remains cozy.

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Now that the prototype is well and truly tested, we decided to make a howto. We have also entered it into an Instructables Makerlympics Contest, so if you have the time, please go and vote for us. If you have any questions, you can leave a comment on the Instructables page listed below.

Abe started a fire in the smoker about 8.30 or 9 yesterday morning and the final ham came in at 8pm.

[flickr set=72157626288045233 photo=6 shift=21]

Still, a day's work (especially as it was Abe, not me, that did it all!) is a very small price to pay for the wonderful meat we got out of it. In total, there was about 43 lbs of ham (my favorite) and 12 lbs of bacon, all bagged up in portions that should last a week or two.

The whole house smelled of bacon for most of the afternoon and night. Does anyone think there would be any money in inventing a bacon scented candle?

Saturday, February 15, 2014

We had planned to plant about fifty trees this Spring, seeing as we now have the water for them. However, that turned out to be a little ambitious, just because of the work involved in setting up the system we want. So, for right now we have settled for one row of the forest garden.

[flickr set=72157640991263495 photo=6]

We used the pigs to cut a terrace into the hill. We have then built up the rock retaining wall on the south side and added a bunch of tree branches and manure to build up the organic material. Besides increasing fertility of the soil, this also acts as a huge water battery. The organic content stores water really well and will keep the area moist long after it has been watered.

We then made a wide swale on the north (uphill) side of the terrace. This will help water filter into the soil of the terrace in heavy rains. It also serves as a pathway for us. We'll be installing a deep water irrigation system to get the trees started.

{loadposition adsense}

The big tree holes (nine of them) are on the edge of the swale. Around each tree spot, we will also be planting bushes and vines and other perennials. It'll take a couple of years to really get going, but we'll expand on the area each year, making terraces down the hill. The idea of having a large scale forest garden is super exciting.

Our growing rabbits needed more space, so we made an outdoor rabbit run.

These new rabbits we have are awesome. They produce large litters and those litters reach butcher weight much sooner than rabbits we've had in the past. Plus we have them in the cage and burrow setup as opposed to a colony, so we haven't been losing any to trampling, heat, snakes, and the like. Our production rates have gone up considerably, and our mortality rate has gone down. Great!

[flickr set=72157640994885974 photo=6 shift=3]

There is, however, a downside: the cages we had for the weaned rabbits are insufficient. They were fine while a doe here or there would miss a breeding, but that doesn't seem to be happening much now. We are now in full production, and we've run out of space for the growing rabbits. On any given day, we have over 60 growing rabbits.

{loadposition adsense}

So we've added a colony type area to the setup. There is a triangular area from the northwest corner of the water tank and the northwest corner of the barn that wasn't spoken for. It is now fenced off, with a feeder, a water nipple, and a little shelter. There's a concrete area that runs along the north of the barn wall, so it will always be cool and shaded for the hotter parts of the year (which seem to be starting already). We'll like plant a tree or two in the future, but for now, this area is a perfect spot for the older growers.

There are now two single cages for 4-6 week old babies, as they get gradually weaned (not the whole litter at once). Then there's two double cages for 6-8 week olds. At 8 weeks they go to the outside pen.

We put 20 in there yesterday and they seem to be loving it. Plus Leo and Nicky have found their new favorite place to be. The rabbits are so tame, and the boys love to sit in there petting anyone who hops along.

We have a couple of guys from the village that come and help us with various projects around the place. Between the two of them, they have participated in almost every major project since the first little room we built. They have been invaluable.

A few days ago, they brought us a rooster from the village.

[flickr set=72157621923274024 photo=6 shift=26]

We have beautiful hens. They're extremely tame, fat and each lays almost every day (even during winter). They spend their time wandering around the place, scratching through dirt, eating bugs, tilling the garden, etc.

When the new rooster arrived, he figured he'd landed in heaven. He immediately started to jump every hen in sight. No singing, dancing, getting to know one another, nothing. Naturally, our girls beat him up pretty bad.

{loadposition adsense}

Then, the guineas heard the commotion. They immediately identified him as an intruder, circled him, and proceeded to attack. That poor rooster barely escaped and spent the first couple of days hiding and skulking around in the trees beyond the barnyard.

It's now been the better part of a week and he has been accepted. He hangs out with the chickens, sleeps on their roost, can service them whenever he wants, and so on. He seems at ease, though he still watches those guineas with extreme caution.

Monday, February 10, 2014

How to build a Rocket Mass Heater - There are two main factors that differentiate a Rocket Mass Heater (RMH) from a regular wood-burning stove. One is that the combustion that takes place is far more complete in an RMH, due to the increased draft and insulated burn chamber. An RMH can consequently be up to eight times more efficient, ...

Furry Foot Warmer for your desk - Unfortunately, most of us have to spend at least some time sitting at a desk or table. Whether we work full-time in an office, or have to catch up on odd jobs like accounts, writing, sewing, artwork, even eating. And when sedentary, our circulation tends to be less effective, which at this time of y...

Oyster Mushrooms in a Laundry Basket - Mushrooms often get overlooked in the grand scheme of gardening, just because they're not plants. However, they are extremely beneficial to your garden's soil, are highly nutritious and make a tasty addition to almost any meal. The high levels of protein also make them especially valuable to vegetar...

Wild Grape Jelly and more - There's something infinitely satisfying about gathering food from the wild. I guess part of it comes from an instinctive drive left over from our hunter/gatherer days, and part of it from the lazy man in each of us that likes getting something for "free", without having to work or pay for it. No mat...

Smoked Bacon from Scratch - Every meat-eater I've ever met has a very special place in their belly for bacon. Quite simply, it is delicious, almost any way you cook it. In fact, we love it so much that we raise a couple of pigs each year to meet all our bacon needs, not to mention ham, lard, sausage, pork chops, ribs, etc. Wi...

Make a Rabbit Fur Hat from scratch - When it comes to staying warm, there's nothing quite like home-raised rabbit fur. If you tan it correctly, it comes out soft, pliable and extremely beautiful. We've made bags, kindle covers, cushions, blankets, and slippers. But, for the sake of this article, we'll describe not only how to tan the f...

http://ift.tt/1ekgMx3 - The Chispito Wind Generator was designed to be simple and efficient with fast and easy construction. There are no limits to what you can do with wind power. There is nothing more rewarding and empowering than making a wind powered generator from scrap materials. Most of the tools and materials in th...

http://ift.tt/14KQ90G - In short, a wicking bed consists of a basin of gravel with rich soil on top of it. There is a pipe set into the gravel, which bends and rises to the surface for watering. This is how you water your plants. The water settles in the gravel and is wicked up by the soil to the plants' roots. It is very ...

http://ift.tt/1ekgLcw - If you want to start your plants indoors weeks before you can put them into the ground, soil blocks is the way to go. They have many advantages, but the main one is that soil blocks GREATLY reduce transplant shock, leaving you with more survivors in your garden. They won't create root balls like st...